A baby girl with a low birth weight was given a diagnosis of congenital bicuspid aortic stenosis and mitral valve prolapse. At the age of 40 days, she underwent balloon aortic valvotomy, but significant aortic regurgitation appeared afterwards. Another surgical intervention became necessary by the age of 20 months (weight, 5.7 kg), because of intractable heart failure mostly caused by exacerbated mitral regurgitation. We performed a leaflet extension valvuloplasty for the small bicuspid aortic valve using an autologous pericardium treated by glutaraldehyde. The mitral valve was replaced with an ATS-16AP valve. Although her postoperative course was complicated with mitral paravalvular leakage and poor left ventricular function, she was discharged from hospital 6 months post operatevely. Leaflet extension valvuloplasty is a surgical option for infants with a small aortic annulus, but the procedure could be the only solution in cases when Konno or Ross techniques are not suitable.

A 61-year-old man was referred to our hospital for treatment of hemolytic anemia after ascending aortic replacement aortic dissection. Cine mode magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed stenosis at the proximal anastomostic site of a Teflon strip. We diagnosed hemolytic anemia induced by collision of red blood cells on the inverted felt strip. Conservative therapy with Sarpogrelate and β-blockers was effective to treat his hemolytic anemia. However, 7 years later he was re-admitted because of infective endocarditis at the aortic valve, and underwent aortic root replacement. Intraoperative findings showed a stiff and inverted Teflon felt strip causing stenosis of the proximal anastomosis. Hemolytic anemia should be considered a rare complication of using a Teflon felt strip to reinforce anastomosis for acute aortic dissection.

Supravalvular aortic stenosis is a rare obstructive lesion of the left ventricular outflow tract localized at the level of sinotubular junction. It has been recognized that supravalvular stenosis may occur as a part of Williams syndrome and is sometimes complicated by obstruction of the left main coronary artery. We successfully performed single patch augmentation for supravalvular aortic stenosis and left coronary ostial stenosis with concomitant aortic valvotomy in a child without Williams syndrome. The patient had been followed as congenital bicuspid aortic valvular and supravalvular stenosis. At the age of 3 years, cardiac catheterization revealed an increased pressure gradient of 90mmHg at the left ventricular outflow and newly developed ostial stenosis of the left coronary artery. An oblique incision on the ascending aorta was made above the sinotubular junction and extended leftward onto the left main coronary artery, and this incision opened the fibrous ridge at the left coronary artery. After commissurotomy for the bicuspid valve, both the supravalvular and ostial stenosis were augmented with a single autologous pericardial patch treated by glutaraldehyde. The pressure gradient was significantly reduced and the ischemic left ventricular dysfunction was eliminated.

Methods: Consecutive patients diagnosed with OFs at Fujieda Heisei Memorial Hospital were divided into three groups: nonsurgical therapy, balloon kyphoplasty (BKP), and open surgery groups. The mOF score was calculated, and the levels of independence and posttreatment imaging data were compared between patients treated and not treated according to the mOF score-based treatment recommendation. Results: In total, 118 patients were included (nonsurgical therapy, n=57; BKP, n=48; open surgery, n=13), of whom 100 (85%) received treatment consistent with the mOF score-based treatment recommendation. In the BKP and open surgery groups, the mOF scorebased treatment recommendations were consistent with the actual treatment in 93% of the patients. However, in the nonsurgical group, the mOF score-based treatment recommendation was not consistent with the actual treatment in 25% of the patients. In this group, patients not treated according to the mOF score had significantly shorter vertebral body height, greater local kyphosis, and smaller sacral slope after treatment than patients treated according to the mOF score-based treatment recommendation. Conclusions In the BKP and open surgery groups, the mOF scores were consistent with actual clinical selection. In the nonsurgical therapy group, patients not treated according to the mOF score-based treatment recommendation exhibited severe vertebral body deformity and a less well-balanced spine shape after treatment. The mOF score may help in selecting suitable treatments for OFs.

Purpose: This study was performed to determine the prognostic value of lymphocyte-to-CRP ratio after curative resection for hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods: Between July 2010 and October 2021, 173 consecutive patients (144 male, 29 female) who underwent surgical resection for pathologically confirmed hepatocellular carcinoma were included in this retrospective study. Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between clinicopathological characteristics and recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). A P-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The patients (mean age, 71 years) were stratified into high (≥9,500, n = 108) and low (<9,500, n = 65) lymphocyteto-CRP ratio groups. The low lymphocyte-to-CRP ratio group had significantly worse RFS and OS. Low lymphocyte-toCRP ratio (hazard ratio [HR], 1.865; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.176–2.960; P = 0.008), multiple tumors (HR, 3.333; 95% CI, 2.042–5.343; P < 0.001), and microvascular invasion (HR, 1.934; 95% CI, 1.178–3.184; P = 0.009) were independently associated with RFS, whereas low albumin-to-globulin ratio (HR, 2.270; 95% CI, 1.074–4.868; P = 0.032), α-FP of ≥25 ng/mL (HR, 2.187; 95% CI, 1.115–4.259; P = 0.023), and poor tumor differentiation (HR, 2.781; 95% CI, 1.041–6.692; P = 0.042) were independently associated with OS. Lymphocyte-to-CRP ratio had a higher area under the curve (0.635) than other inflammation-based markers (0.51–0.63). Conclusion Lymphocyte-to-CRP ratio is superior to other inflammation-based markers as a predictor of RFS in patients with surgically resected hepatocellular carcinoma.